Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
"... Oh my God," gasped Corrin as she watched the scene depicting the deaths of the Fuegoleon brothers, unable to do anything else like the bystander that she's forced to be.
"Brutal," commented Ogmios, dispassionately munching on his popcorn. "Shame that we couldn't stop their deaths. They would've been great future assets, but alas."
"I personally liked the taste of the eldest's mana," Brigid remarked. "But never again, I shall partake."
Corrin would've normally protested at their apathy, but she'd got to know these people too well. For them, death was common as air. Brutal deaths were mere curiosities that one would see at the side of the road akin to a dead animal or so.
"... You know that we're inside your mind, right?" Ogmios pointed out, much to her surprise. "I won't judge. Feel free to share your opinion, word of mouth."
"Nor will I," Brigid seconded. "So, what do you have to say about us not caring?"
Corrin shook her head. "I'm not saying that you guys don't care," she elaborated. "I'm saying that you guys can even treat this like some sort of entertainment."
"Normally, we would say that no one is forcing you to watch..." Ogmios then looked to the side, not even defending himself from the accusation, "... but given that none of us are allowed to wake up until it is our turn to take a swing against fate... you decide."
"The first death is always the worst," Brigid reassured Corrin. "After that, you'll eventually learn how to laugh at it for how nonsensical it becomes. I mean for fuck's sake, did you know that I saw an entire group of adventurers consisting of a human, an elf, a dwarf, a [Minotaur], a [Harpy] and a quarter-Jotun ex-Thaumaturge all die from literally being shit on by a passing [Wyvern]?"
"Smothered to death by [Wyvern] shit," said the [Memory Magic] user, "more commonplace then you'd think. You see one hilarious death, you'll learn to laugh at the rest."
"What's so funny about watching two people die?!" Corrin then jumped out of her seat. "Is the people I know suffering and dying really that pathetic in your eyes?!"
The artificial magic spirit then turns towards the a scene where twin sisters whose facial features resembled the likes of Yami Sukehiro and Taro Platnia were found traversing through the jungles leading towards the Heart Kingdom under fire. "Honey, we're not making fun of you or your anguish," she pointed out. "But we'd like to point out that you should save your tears after this is all over."
"Because the shitstorm we're seeing right now?" said Ogmios, the scenes now depicting the others fighting the remaining three demons. "It ain't even at its peak yet."
Corrin then took a moment for herself to realize that she was merely acting out of emotional reflex before acknowledging that she couldn't do anything to intervene right now other than watch. Even if she wanted to do something, it would guarantee violence, rendering her faint hopes of trying to get away from said violence utterly useless.
"... Thinking about how you've tried to escape only for you to come back where you've started?" Brigid pointed out. "I won't call you a coward, since real cowards don't acknowledge evil in the first place. You have the ability to see what's good and bad beyond yourself. The real question is, what are you planning to do, knowing all of that?"
"... I..." she hesitated.
"The Black Bull's Captain at critical condition, Jack coming out by the skin of teeth, and even through three of them are slain successfully, at this point, it's anyone's game," Ogmios pointed out. "Fate is particularly cruel when it comes to sparing and wasting people under its whim. It's exactly that; a whim, nothing more. It'll take ya before you know when it's your turn. Might be alive today, might die tomorrow, but for now, while waiting for our turn in the queue, we just watch and laugh because the other option is to submit to total despair, which, in my humble opinion, is rather gauche."
Corrin sighs in utter exhaustion before sitting back down, unable to answer.
"Take your time," reassured Brigid. "There'll come a time where you'll have to answer it, whether you like it or not."
Saga 22: Crawling Part 3
Dam's Sluice Gates, Reservoir Sector, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"[Primal Water Magic: 666-Pounder, Makara]! the Demon exclaimed as he then shot a massive shot of water in a shape of a gigantic crocodile toward the four mages.
"[Cotton Creation Magic: Sheep Fluffy Cushion]!" Charmy then summons a sheep-like construct made of her attribute to absorb the water projectile into itself. "Fun fact, cotton absorbs water!"
"Fun fact, that puny-ass pillow ain't enough to absorb all of my spell's impact!" shot back the Demon as everyone saw the sheep construct begin to swell and leak like a balloon that was about to pop. "GET FLUSHED, SCRUBS!"
[Sheep Fluffy Cushion], upon reaching overcapacity, explodes into a high-pressure torrent, blasting back all four of the mages and smashing all of them against the stone wall. Just as all of them quickly regained consciousness, Varuna already fired more shots of hyper-pressurized bores of water towards their direction from his tendril's suction cups.
"No you don't!" En then opens his grimoire which then unleashes a cloud of spore that sprout out a giant row of bulbous, amber-colored slime-capped mushrooms before them, the collective fungi acting as a barrier. "[Mushroom Magic: Mr. Slick Mushrooms]!"
The gleaming films on the fungi's caps redirect the shots of water elsewhere, giving everyone else enough to time to recover and reposition.
"WHAT?! HOW?!" panicked the Demon as the slime-capped mushrooms all struck various poses of manliness. "REGULAR BIOFILM AREN'T THAT LUBRICANT!"
En snorts a chuckle as all of the mushrooms chanted "MAN" repeatedly. "... All of my mushrooms are custom-made," he revealed. "I increased the slime's slipperiness and overall composition to that of an oil's. And last I checked, oil and water don't mix, no matter how hard you spray it down with."
"Meaning it's payback time!" Nix roared as he and Willy readied their grimoires. "Willy!"
"Got it!" the latter replied as the two moved in for their combined assault. "[Mud Binding Magic: Bottomless Swamp]!"
"[Fire Magic: Flame Spike]!" Nix then swung around his flaming flail over his head as his partner's spell caused Varuna to sink below his knees. "OPEN WIDE, YOU PUNK-ASS BITCH!"
The Demon cackles at their attempt. "Morons."
In a surprising twist, the Demon dives into Willy's spell before coming back out with its belly full of water. It then locked eyes with Nix's, right before it then spat out a jet of pressurized liquid that bored a small hole between the [Fire Magic] user's eyes, killing him instantly along with his spell petering out in the wind.
"NIX!" Willy cried out as his partner fell before him as his grimoire burned to ash at the death of its owner.
"MUD IS 60% WATER, DUMBASS!" cackled Varuna as he then plunged his hands into the sludge beneath him. "WAS I SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED?! YOU C-LISTER MAGGOTS ALREADY LOST FROM THE MOMENT YOU USED MY FAVORED ELEMENT AGAINST ME!"
The Demon then began absorbing the mud, or rather, the water content within the mud into his own body. As the mud was processed, Willy's own grimoire began to crumble and his body began to shrivel up like a prune before being reduced to a husk in a matter of seconds.
"NO!" En cried out as another fell dead from this sudden reversal. To make matters even worse, in Varuna's hands reformed Willy's grimoire, taking full possession of it after the latter's death at the former.
"Ugh, you humans weirded me out to no end," growled the Demon. "One minute, I look down on you shits. The next minute, I'm running for the fucking hills. Then I find you all way too hard to kill, only for me to to find two C-listers, which I am currently scraping off of my proverbial shoes like a stepped-on animal turd."
It then grimaced in pain as its own natural mana intake became more unstable, his own body forcibly lowering its threshold to not overwhelm his functions.
"Confusion, inconsistency, and unpredictability. That's why I can't stand you humans!" Varuna pointed towards the two. "CAN'T YOU TWO JUST DIE LIKE THE TWO OF THEM, OR ARE TWO OF YOU ACTUALLY BADASSES THAT I CLEARLY HAVE A BAD HABIT OF RUNNING INTO TONIGHT?!"
En had no words to the Demon who was treating the death of his teammates as its own inconvenience akin to getting the wrong order at a restaurant. Charmy meanwhile, was getting hungrier the more she disrespectfully stared at the Demon's wriggling tendrils and clicking exoskeleton-like shells, wandering what kind of creamy meat and succulent flesh would taste like.
It didn't help the Demon's neurosis as he continued to make no sense of the pair's conflicting motives that are somehow keeping them in the game. "FUCK YOU ALL! I'LL RECTIFY THIS HEADACHE OF MINE, STARTING BY KILLING YOU TWO!"
Varuna's stolen grimoire then changes its glow from from a deep-amber brown to that of dark and muddy-looking navy-blue.
"[PRIMAL WATER + MUD COMPOUND MAGIC]!" the Demon roared as its combined spells coalesced into a serpentine-like construct before the two mages. "[UNDEAD SERPENT KING, NAGARAJA]!"
The muddy-water snake then shot itself towards the two mages like a speeding meteorite. Charmy, undeterred, summons several giant sheep constructs that all performed [Sleeping Sheep Strikes] against the giant snake, knocking it back and have it smashed against the dam's walls.
"... Charmy?" asked En as he and Varuna noticed her mana output gradually increasing.
"... Hungry..." Charmy's stomach then growled like the beast's as her mouth drooled with hot saliva, her petite body surging with mana out of nowhere. "... Be my food... dinner... was nowhere enough..."
... I might be crazy but are her powers increasing the more hungrier she gets?! thought En, who knew what not to think about too hard lest his head exploded.
Varuna also tried to make heads or tails of this line of thought as well. Varuna's unique properties allows him to absorb all [Water Magic] and adjacent mana into his own body, like he did with Willy and his [Mud Magic], using the grimoire itself as a bridge to siphon all of the user's mana and moisture remotely.
Normally, even in the most bizarre situations, there was always one constant throughout the whole world. Just as air is needed to breathe, food is consumed to sustain, and fire burns all forms of dry wood, a mage only has a limited threshold of mana that they can pull from. First their own bodies, then if necessary, externally from their surroundings through whatever means.
The DEVAs aren't living beings that followed those rules. Rather, they're spongers, empty shells that are only "activated" when their internal mana regulatory organs are jumpstarted, akin to a cardiac massage restarting a human's heart back to its default rhythmic setting.
So naturally, the mere presence of DEVAs would allow them to connect to the earth itself, where they drew their powers from, with the Dragon's skeleton as their source of power/their "giver." Meaning that as long as the Dragon's corpse stood and generated more mana into the earth, they were allowed to "horde" the natural mana and all adjacent attributes into themselves as "reserve," preventing Heart Kingdom's mastery of their "mana method" from being an active threat.
So it begged the question, why was this half-pint with [Cotton Magic] suddenly experiencing a massive uptick in her own natural reserves? Unlike a human's mana, it wasn't like a fire that was gradually burning itself out (for reference, food, water and rest are like the "kindles" that kept the mana lit; conversely, if the mana "burned out" completely, then the magic won't come back), but rather, the phrase "perpetual cancerous growth" could be used to best describe the sudden surge coming from her.
For Charmy herself, reality was a tad different from what the other two were seeing.
For her, they were simply food.
The beast inside of her hungered.
In response to her own hunger completely overriding Charmy's rationality, the sheep behind her began to shed their fleece revealing themselves to be a pack of wolves. Their sharp-teethed maws dripping with drool and their tongues slobbering their chops in anticipation for their next meal.
"... I get it," shuddered the Demon, realizing that his suspicions were correct as her mana signature was discerned to be unique. "... You're not completely human, aren't you?"
Charmy snaps her fingers, signaling her wolves to pounce. The [Nagaraja] then quickly slithers between Varuna and the beasts, intercepting their attack as the three clashed against the giant serpent.
"Fuck it," spoke Varuna, realizing that it was pointless to overthink things anymore. "I got plenty of water to work with, so let's see who devours who first!"
The Demon and the unleashed beast within Charmy began their hunt with each other as their prey. En could do nothing but watch, lest he became "food" for both of them, with hims being especially concerned about being the latter's.
"... Whatever's happening, I hope that you're still in there, Charmy."
Abandoned Mines, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"[Fire Magic: Calidus Brachium]!"
The fiery fist makes direct contact against Brahma's head, only once again, not a single scratch was left on it from the impact.
"Try again," it spoke as it stood completely unfazed.
The two Spirit Guardians then step in from behind the Crimson Lion's Vice-Captain.
"We have to find its weak point!" Floga pointed out as he formed a bow and arrow from his [Fire Magic]. "Just punching blindly won't work!"
"He's in my element, so I'll try and make an opening!" Sarado remarked as her grimoire glowed with a warm amber light.
"You have it backwards," Brahma interjected as it then dug its hands into the earth, now beginning its counteroffensive, "you're in my element."
Sarado then suddenly began to feel weaker as her grimoire lost its light. With the partially borrowed power, Brahma then flips the entire segment of the entire ground before him, unleashing a massive tidal wave of sharpen stones and stalagmites towards the three. With little to no time to think, they were forced into a retreat as the attack closed in on them, leaving the gap between them and the obstinate Demon was effectively reset back to where it was.
"Your five minutes are now up," threatened Brahma as he began taking in the surrounding mana for himself, taking full control of the surrounding earth itself rather than simply draw mana from it. "Now be buried altogether as I soon resume my work prior."
The cave's ceiling and floors began to tremble before they both began closing in on each other like a giant press ready to crush them all at once.
"[Primal Earth Magic]," the Demon declared as solid rock began to shift and oscillate like water, "[Tamisra]."
Both floor and ceiling collapsed into the other, with the three now stuck holding up both back from crushing all of them.
"If you excuse me," the Demon then quickly leaves the cavern and deeper into the earth, leaving the three to die as his trap did rest of the work.
"SHIT! GOD, FUCKING DAMN, SHIT!" cursed Meroleona as she found herself pushing against the two colliding forces above and below with her [Mana Skin] at max power lest she and the others got crushed under the weight of two slabs of earth pressing between them. Normally, she would punch through the earth, but not only she didn't have enough arm room to wind up even a one inch-punch, but upon feeling it, the earth that pressed both below and above them were roughly durable as Brahma himself, no thanks in his part due to his fully-taken-over control of the surrounding earth.
"Dammit, what happened to me?!" Sarado remarked as she kept up with the bench press position with her remaining strength. "It's like he siphoned a majority of my own magic out of my body!"
"I think it's on a similar principle of how he shut down our usage of Mana Method from the very beginning..." Floga commented as he kept himself upright within the best of his current abilities, "... he'd simply adjusted the properties to solely favor him!"
"So wait, then why aren't our magic being sucked dry then?!" Meroleona asked before she then recalled Brahma's words of them "being in his element," connecting the two and two together before coming to the conclusion that it had targeted their "weak link."
Sarado took notice and began to feel a slight sense of shame. "... Well shit," she cursed. "I fucked up just by being here."
"Complain later," Floga remarked as he struggled to hold up the upper half of the press, "because right now, we need to find a way out of here."
Meroleona then began making calculations of the distance between them and where Brahma had dug himself into. "... At best, I can manage 10 seconds going from here to there with my own magic," she pointed out. "What about you guys?"
"Same time as you," Floga pointed out before looking back at Sarado with great worry as he'd quickly come to a conclusion, "... but only if I go on my own."
Sarado won't make it, due to her weakened state and that none of them can still use Mana Method to replenish themselves due to Brahma still prohibiting the usage.
"... Then go," Sarado grimacing smile, now accepting her fate. "Stop him at all costs!"
Floga wanted to protest, but even he knew that he couldn't argue against the presented logic.
The dam, if breached, is going to kill hundreds with its flood waters. "... I'm sorry."
"Thanks for sticking with us while you could," Meroleona put on a brave face before she was forced to leave behind someone that she couldn't save.
Sarado, with the last of her remaining strength, tried to hold up the remaining gap long enough for the other two to escape, only for the earth to suddenly increase its own downshift, causing the burden to double onto her shoulders and forcing her down onto her knees, already the gap being half its initial width.
"DON'T LOOK BACK!" Floga cried out as tears steamed out from the corners of his eyes. "DON'T LOOK BACK!"
The gap then closes in further, and despite Sarado's best efforts, the remaining space was now barely wide enough to accommodate a full adult on his belly to crawl through. Left with no other choice lest all of them got crushed before even one could escape, Floga resorts to the most desperate of measures to ensure that one of them makes it through.
"Hate me if you must."
The Spirit Guardian of Fire then blasts Meroleona with his [Fire Magic], propelling the latter ahead towards the exit as the gap closed in tight enough for him to barely hold on.
Meroleona dared to look back, and the last thing she saw trapped between the closing floor and ceiling were the two's faces before the gap welded itself shut, the sounds of bone and flesh being liquidated assaulting her ears as the earth rumbled for one last time, ushering a dead quiet which was then broken by the lioness's roar of unrestrained fury.
She wanted to punch the wall before her to vent her frustrations, but there was no time to waste, no Mana Method allowed, no backup to fight alongside, and no escape routes available.
"... If I can't punch him to death..." her feet then burst into a pair of flame jets before she rocketed towards the hole dug by the Demon, "THEN I'LL KICK HIM TO DEATH!"
In a few seconds, she catches up like a speeding meteorite of pure anger and rage towards Brahma, the latter, rather than simply block with his body, instead was forced to block the flaming kick with both of his hands, pushing him back a few feet across the dirt.
Meroleona then quickly kicks her feet off of the Demon's hands before swinging a swift jab of [Calidus Brachium] towards the Demon, with it blocking with its shell.
"Oi oi, what's this I'm seeing?!" Meroleona taunted, admittedly cracking at the seams of both unrestrained wrath and disappointment at her sudden turn of fortunes. "The invincible Brahma, blocking?!"
"Not once I have called myself invincible, wench," the Demon rebutted before wincing in pain as he clutched its head. "... It appears that my other three compatriots had all gotten themselves killed... and this is WHY, that I proposed that we avoid direct fighting and just come up with subterfuge to kill everyone in the Heart Kingdom all at once! Damn them and their unintended personality quirks, mine included, for why am I their sole minder?!"
"What's the matter?" taunted Meroleona, her expression warping beyond demented. "Chicken?"
Brahma shook his head. "Suddenly, I sympathize with Varuna of all Demons," he growled as his arms morphed into earthen drills. "You humans are beyond an annoyance; you're a chronic infestation, that I now need to prioritize on getting rid of!"
The Demon then charges towards Meroleona, the two exchanging blows with each other in a brutal cross counter.
Meroleona's teeth was holding onto the tip of Brahma's drill tip for their dear lives as Brahma's cheek now slightly caved in from her punch.
He's now weak, thought the lioness mage before the two pulled back from each other to size each other up in their current one-on-one brawl. If his words are any indication, then it means that those two actually did it, and judging from his tone, that their gimmick: they're only strong when they're all functioning together, meaning the more of them are popped, the weaker they become altogether!
With a mighty roar, Meroleona takes the first move, one [Calidus Brachium] wound back and thrown towards Brahma, now his drill-arms spinning as they swung back towards the former's fist.
Agricultural Sector (on fire), Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"[Primal]."
"[Fire Magic]," spoke Agni as they pointed their flamethrower-arms towards their front.
"Here it comes!" Scheherazade exclaimed as she kept up [Dandan] in tandem with Undine.
"[Flames of Purification]."
"[Pāvaka]," then a pair of fire blasts in shapes of roaring serpentine dragons roared towards them.
"[Dandan]!" ordered the Queen of Dama as her merman creature blasted another torrent of water with Undine to hold back the draconic flames from reaching them.
As the clash continued from ahead, Lolopeckha was healing Potrof. Thanks to her aid, his condition was now stabilized, but the Spirit Guardian was still in no shape to fight. "Hang in there," she begged. "Please, don't die on me!"
"... I'm alright, milady," coughed Potrof as he struggled to get up. "Please... let me fight..."
"No!" she cried out. "You can't! You'll die!"
The Spirit Guardian stumbles back to his feet, struggling to walk properly. "... As long... as you're safe..."
"DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR LIFE SO POINTLESSLY LIKE THAT!" she cried out, grabbing him from behind to stop him from walking towards certain death. "Look around you..."
"... Milady?" he blinked.
"I SAID LOOK AROUND YOU!" she ordered, forcing the Spirit Guardian to realize that even if he was able to fight 100%, the odds were not only stacked against him, but simply contributing would add more fuel to both the metaphorical and literal fire. "You see?! Now it's not the time for blind martyrdom! We need to figure out a plan!"
The Spirit Guardian sighs before apologizing. "Forgive me for causing distress, milady," he bowed his head slightly as he sat back down. "So, what's the plan?"
Back in the literal heat of the moment, Dandan and Undine's blasts of water kept the fire dragon blasts at bay, locking both them and Agni in a stalemate.
"Not."
"Hot enough," spoke the female head as its protrusions began to glow like a preheated oven.
"They're using Mana Method!" Undine exclaimed as the heat around Agni intensified like that of a localized sun. "DEFENSIVE MEASURES, NOW!"
"LOLOPECHKA!" cried out Scheherazade. "GET BEHIND US!"
"[True]."
"[Primal Fire Magic]," the spherical tanks began to glow as their dragon shots receded into their orbs, beginning to float as their body curled itself up to keep their gathering power within themselves.
"LOLO!" cried out the Water Spirit as she and her host combined their mana as did with Scheherazade and Potrof. "[WATER SPIRIT MAGIC]!"
The two spells then unleashed both at once.
"[Heatwave of Damnation]," declared the male head.
"[Vahni]," their body then let loose an engulfing explosion of pure heat that blasted their surrounding ruin into particles of ash, kicking up the soot into the air in its spread of ruin, further blocking out the night sky hanging above with the remnants of all that they've burned with impunity.
However, one group refused to yield to the flames of indiscriminate destruction. "[OCEANIC CITADEL, ATLANTIS]!"
A palace made of tidal waves and whirlpools surrounded the group, blocking out the wave of destruction from disintegrating them where they stood, even as the water hissed and boiled from the pure heat unleashed before them.
The heatwave blasted forth peters itself out, at the same time the walls of water finally coming back down, revealing the fatigued Undine to have shrunk to the size of that of an adolescent girl in her late-preteens.
"Undine!" gasped Lolopechka at her friend's diminutive size.
"... Well," she spoke as she looked back with relief, "... the only thing we have to worry about now is getting black lungs."
Agni now found themselves kneeling, with their tanks now hissing with release of excess heat from their body.
"It's vulnerable! Now's it our chance!" Scheherazade then summoned one of her strongest creatures from her fable. "[BAHAMUT]!"
The giant flying whale then appeared above them before it then exhaled a crushing blast of wind towards the Demon.
Undeterred, the Demon then blasts a thick stream of pitch-black smoke from their nozzles, countering the blast with their own, the force of two blasts forcing both back into a stalemate before exploding, thickening the skies further.
"Blow out the smokes!" ordered Scheherazade. "Flush the Demon out of hiding!"
The whale complies with the order, inhales another deep breath to unleash its blast of wind, only for it to start suffocating from the excess smoke from above, forcing it to retreat back into its fable to recover.
"Our smoke..." spoke the male head.
"... It is really thick," stated the female head.
They then plant their arms into the ground, absorbing even more mana from the earth as their tanks siphoned the mana from the air, instantly recharging itself back to full capacity.
"Now breath in deep..."
"... And die," they then aimed their arms towards the group.
"RUN!" Potorf then hoists Lolopechka over his shoulders while Scheherazade summoned [Roc], a giant eagle monster that served as a reoccurring antagonist force from her fable's one-thousand and one tales, to pick both the Queen and her Spirit Guardian along with her holding the miniaturized Undine with its talons, picking up speed as it tried to get away from the blast zone.
"[Primal Fire Magic]."
"[Volcanic Exhaust, Dhumaketu]," the two nozzles then blasted a suffocating wall of superheated smog before their direction, intent to cause even more death and destruction.
While the other tried to find ways to figure out how to deal with Agni's flames as they flew away from the smoke lest they die a horrible death, Potrof had begun to notice something about the Demon's body in correlation to their actions taken.
"... I think I might've found its weakness."
The Moon, Outer Space
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT BITCH?!" squawked Ziz as its eyes tried to locate his curse victim, only for Lolopeckha's signal to disappear when she'd disappeared at around the same time when smoke began to obscure the skies above Heart Kingdom.
It was not only the smoke that blocked her signature, but a mana signature that was riving his own that had flared around Heart Kingdom had now completely drowned out his victims. Normally, he would start firing indiscriminately, but his [Curse of Tyranny], ironically to its namesake, was a two-way street.
As long as Lolopechka remained out of sight and indoors, Ziz is allowed to fire at anyone he pleased, allowing to not go stir crazy when he himself was situated at the Moon, and often shot at incoming foreigners (Mosin's band of Thaumaturges that didn't survive their journey southeast-ward) or when not shooting at things, be worshipped as a god in a far-off country.
However, when Lolopechka's outside but unable to be detected through conventional means (he himself can easily dispel basic cloaking spells and had near-miss encounters with the Water Spirit and her host several times in the past), then he's practically stuck with no loopholes left to exploit.
Ziz silently cursed his creator. He was made all-powerful, but unable to act out beyond its restrictions, all because the creator feared them more than she'd hated them.
"Even after centuries, that damn failsafe is still impossible to remove..." growled the condor Demon as he picked at the tattooed pattered printed below his chest. This [Curse of Paranoia-Remote Detonation Variant] was rigged to go off whenever if he either turns against his master Lucifuge or he violates the conditions of his own [Curse of Tyranny] and ends up having his "100%" accuracy will be turned onto himself.
If there was one, rare constant that he could put onto his master and creator, was that she had a god-given-talent for screwing everyone, herself included, over big time. She turned the adage "self-fulfilling prophecy" into that of an artform that only a master like herself could ever hope to accomplish.
Despite his indignations and rage, all he could was wait. For at the very least, the first chance the skies clear and the bitch is locked on in his sights...
"... Then Heart Kingdom will be one Water Spirit short."
Dam's Sluice Gates, Reservoir Sector, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR MALFUNCTION, YOU HALF-PINT NONHUMAN?!" screamed Varuna as he kept shooting the barrage of water beams towards the diminutive Black Bull, only for her to dodge the incoming shots as her wolves closed in towards the Demon.
The Demon then unleashes his [Undead Serpent King, Nagaraja] towards the wolf pack in hopes of destroying them, which in tandem, blasted his [666-Pounder, Makara] towards Charmy herself in hopes of overwhelming her with his two-pronged barrage.
However, in response to the wolves being terminated, a bigger, giant wolf apparition appeared behind Charmy before it devouring both attacks. "... That's the best you can offer?" sneered the beast. "How repulsive. Your spells taste disgusting!"
"SHUT UP! I'M HERE TO KILL THAT SHORTY!" Varuna screeched as he then unleashed more blasts of high-pressure water bombs from his tendrils towards the giant wolf. "FEEDING YOU IS THE LEAST OF MY PRIORITIES!"
The wolf simply snatches the spells from the air before downing them like regular foodstuff. "Who said you get to decide who feeds and who serves?!" it barked out. "Demons, Angels, Dragons, Gods and other Spirits alike... are nothing but food that I seek to consume! So get your ass in line and feed me with everything you have!"
En couldn't believe what he was hearing from the beast coming from Charmy. Hell, even he couldn't believe what he was comprehending at what's in front of him right now.
A Demon with full mastery over the element of water powered by a perpetual stream of mana that En could see the Demon's body automatically absorbing the land's natural mana into itself against a beast of perpetual hunger seeing the Demon not as a threat, but as an unruly host in a restaurant that he himself was "frequenting" as of now. En did his best to remain beneath notice, for not only is it unsafe to be on his own, but there was a creeping feeling that the moment he ran away, he would die.
Varuna's temperament frantically bounced between rage and fear. His mind was on the verge of snapping from the pressure that had been laid onto him with three of the DEVAs being no longer around, meaning that he can't run at max potential, hence his fear of death being a possibility was something that bothers him greatly. But at the same time, he felt unfathomable rage of this brat tricking him into thinking that she was a mere human when she merely looked like one.
"Who are you?" the Demon asked. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
The wolf's maw curled up into that of a contemptuous sneer. "People called me many things in the past," he boasted. "The Ravenous Beast. The Moon-Devourer. The Eater of Dragons. The Insatiable One. The Howl Heralding the Hundred-Year Hunger from Hell. And, the Dwarven Totem God of Desire!"
"Dwarven?" En remarked at the beast's boast, connecting on what he'd had said to Charmy, and suddenly, it clicked with him.
Charmy was a dwarf. Or rather, a dwarf-descendent, which sort of explained her diminutive height and her ravenous appetite. And apparently, their race's patron God had resided inside her blood this whole time.
"I AM DESIRE! I AM POWER! AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, I AM HUNGER!" the wolf howled, his voice booming across the empty night sky as the surge of power within Charmy has now risen past critical mass, completely overwhelming the Demon's own. "I AM GERI! AND I! HAVE COME! TO FEED!"
En was now completely loss for words at what he is now witnessing, his legs giving up all strength and found himself prostrating before it. Charmy was not only completely unresponsive, but her body had now been thrown into a birdcage hung around its neck, kept her inside like a macabre charm.
Varuna however, was more angered than scared at this bizarre sight, utterly confused at the presence of some so-called God for a scattered race that he had no interest in. If anything, Varuna couldn't fathom the existence outside of Demons and humans since to him, all mortals were the same.
Acting on this, Varuna then resumes shooting his [Primal Water Magic] spells towards the beast, the latter continuing to devour one by one, growing stronger with each consumption. Varuna however, wasn't planning to fight for long.
Gotta find a way out, he thought as he kept up the assault as the Demon continued to observe the beast on what action will it partake next. So far, it appears that it can eat magic to sustain itself, power be damned. God or not, it's power is a major threat! I have to find a way out!
He then looks back at the dam before remembering what the girl had said about him prior to the start of their battle. It then came up with an idea that might work. "YOU HUNRGY?!"
"Stating the obvious, whelp," growled Geri.
Varuna then takes off running towards the dam before taking off of the ground with jets of hyper-pressurized water shot from his tendrils. "THEN COME AND GET ME!"
The beast then chases after the Demon as the latter begins scaling the dam's walls, enabling the former to follow after it. Its claws dug into the dam walls as the Demon climbed up faster and faster, trying not to get devoured by the monster wolf's snapping maws before it can execute its plan.
Upon reaching the top of the wall, Varuna immediately then digs all of his tendrils into the structure, and begins to pump out all of his remaining water supply into the walls to form cracks within the dam itself. Thanks to both his and Brahma's works (admittedly more on the latter), the dam's structural integrity was more than enough damaged for one more push to achieve a breach.
Made even better, Geri's claws did more work for them, causing even more structural damage expediting the process as visible crackles began to form across the wall's face.
"I HOPE YOU SAVED ROOM FOR DESSERT!" Varuna cried out in glee as the dam began to break apart, spurts of water held behind the dam now leaking before it all exploded into a chaotic tidal wave of water, rock, mud, and Varuna's own spells mixed into the flood. "[PRIMAL WATER + MUD MAGIC: MANVANTARA-SANDHYA]!"
As the wave's shadow loomed over En like an ant staring above a boot's sole, he tried to run, but found that his legs have lost all of their strength. First from Geri, and now from certain death.
"... Sorry guys," he apologized to his family back home, accepting death as he closed his eyes to meet his inevitable end.
... But when he only felt light trickles wetting his skin, En opened his eyes, only to find that the wave itself was still draped above him, only now the direction of its flow were heading somewhere else.
He slowly turned his head towards where the water and debris were heading towards, and finds that all of it were being sucked into Geri's open mouth, forming a vortex that drew in everything that was in the water, thus stopping the flood from happening by drinking the whole thing down to its last drop.
"DESSERT?!" it spoke despite its mouth being full (evidencing that the beast had no concept of table manners). "THIS BARELY QUALIFIES AS AN APPETIZER!"
Before Varuna could even think about panicking, he then suddenly found himself being inhaled into the vortex due to him still pumping out water from his body, that lateral connection essentially acting as a tether that pulled him into the spiral, now spinning about, flailing for his life as he tried to regain whatever form of control he hand over his element.
Geri then sneers at the Demon's attempt of escape. "Leaving so soon?" he taunted. "NOT WHEN YOU'RE THE MAIN COURSE!"
En then began smelling tomatoes. He looked up as the water began to feel warm as it then turned itself into a reddish hue. Then he saw the rocks, mud, and Varuna's own spells turn into ingredients found inside of a common soup.
Rocks turned into chopped potatoes and diced onions, mud turned into various herbs and spices, and the Demon's own spells turned into pieces of beef and noodles. En had now bore witness to the power of a genuine God.
The power to turn reality into their own personal bitch and beat it to their own liking.
"[FOOD MAGIC]!" declared Geri as Varuna's screams gradually drowned out from closing into the eye of the vortex amidst his flailing. "[FIRST COURSE-INFINITE SOUP]!"
Varuna kept trying to find ways to escape, only for the tide to become stronger than his own control over his own element. He kept swimming against the sucking tide raged against him, unable to do anything but fear his impending end.
"GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEEE!" cried Varuna as he approached into the beast's maw.
"NO!" declared the beast, his suction becoming even stronger as his main course begged for his life. "GET! IN! MY! BELLY!"
The maw closes in between the Demon, nosily chewed up and swallowed piecemeal alongside with the rest of the floodwaters' content of soup, ending the God's appetizer with a deep gulp followed up with a resounding burp that was loud enough to make the air itself quake for it duration.
The cleaned-out shells of Varuna burped out by Geri were scattered before En's feet.
En dared not to offend the beast in his post-meal euphoria. Realizing that he had no other feasible option, he tried to make a run for it, only for him to accidentally step on a dry twig, the sound of its snap alerting the beast.
He dared to look back, locking eyes with Geri, with the unconscious Charmy still caged around his neck charm, and the beast's eyes still burning with a primal hunger that can never be satisfied until the entire earth is barren of all traces of life.
"... I'll give you a ten second-head start," spoke Geri. "One."
En then quickly summons [Mr. Running Mushroom] to get away from the beast.
"Two."
En was now completely lost for words or any coherent thought as his mind was reduced to that of an irrational animal being chased by a predator.
"Three."
En looks back to see that the dam was now no longer in sight of him, but En's instincts flared wildly, screaming that he's still not safe.
"Four."
No matter how far away he ran from where the beast stood, En could still hear his voice whispering down from his neck.
"Five."
Trees sped past En as fear overwhelmed his heart.
"Six."
He wanted to fight, but not only he will have to fight Charmy, he also had to fight a God. BY HIMSELF.
"Seven."
En was no stranger to fear, but for the first time in his life, he now knew its true meaning.
"Eight."
To feel fear isn't to simply be afraid. To really feel true fear, it was to find death in the least expected way.
"Nine."
Fear overrode his better judgement, torn between saving himself or saving Charmy, and just as he turned his head back...
... En had already found that Geri was already behind him.
"TEEEEEEENNNNN!" the beast roared as its jaws snapped towards the butt of [Mr. Running Mushroom].
Out of options, En then telepathically orders his summon to throw him across the horizon as hard as it could. As the order was carried out, the beast devours the mushroom man at the same time that the latter threw his caster across the jungle as hard as it could. With the last vestige of hope that he could find in his soul, he sincerely prays that he lands near someone that could stop the monster's rampage.
Underground Area Below the Dam, Abandoned Mines, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
Both Meroleona and Brahma exchanged blow after blow against each other, both of them unleashing their full rage against each other in this vicious melee that the two were now locked into.
Meroleona's [Calidus Brachium] punches all aimed at the "softened" parts of Brahma: the joints, the soft tissue holding the pieces or the carapace together, and the eyes. Granted, none of them ruptured from the impacts of her blows, but compared to her fists landing on solid armor of the Demon, it was like punching a pillow in comparison.
Brahma meanwhile, was assured that his arm-drills would've mulched through her [Mana Skin] and flesh, but they held on, with the worst that he'd inflicted onto her being scrapes that slightly flayed off a few millimeters of her organic tissues from several spots of her body, when in reality, she should be riddled with holes right now.
"Why... WHY?!" roared Brahma as he kept punching between Meroleona's own, the latter's blows . "WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING DIE?!"
"RIGHT BACK AT YOU, BALDY!" both Meroleona and Brahma's punches end up on each others' chins in a mutual uppercut.
From their wound-back heads, both then swing back towards each other in a vicious headbutt, ramming each other's temples like a pair of clashing bulls, pressing and grinding against each other's heads before both broke off from each other via the way of another cross-counter.
As Meroleona forced her unhinged jaw back into its place, Brahma himself was still trying to come to terms of how he was being hurt in the first place. "Why..." he gasped at this unfamiliar feeling. "WHY CONTINUED! WHAT DRIVES YOU TO THIS POINT BEYOND MADNESS?!"
Meroleona spits out a wad of blood and teeth to the side. "... After all that punching, you really don't get it?"
Brahma refuses to acknowledge her words with another spell from his arsenal. "[PRIMAL EARTH MAGIC: ASIPATRAVANA]!"
The cave's walls then all sprout out endless sword blades made of earth before all of them shot themselves towards Meroleona.
"WEAK!" Meroleona then simply counters the rain of swords by simply letting her own mana explode outwards, the shockwave scattering the swords away from their initial trajectories, leaving her relatively untouched.
"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WEAKER THAN ME!" Brahma cried out as he then summoned several worm-like creatures made of earth from the ground to all attack Meroleona. "SO HOW?! HOW ARE YOU NOW THIS STRONG WHEN THE THREE OF YOU COULDN'T EVEN FAZE ME BEFORE?!"
"Honestly... no fucking clue," she answered as she punched aside the swarm of man-eating earthworms. "Maybe having the sounds of good people being crushed into paste being still fresh in my memory is more than enough to piss me off!"
"OH PLEASE, ALL YOU HUMANS ARE GOOD AT IS DYING!" ranted the Demon as he summoned more giant earthworms before mixing it up with earthen boars. "SICKNESS, ENERVATION, STARVATION, INJURIES; YOUR KIND HAS PROVEN HOW FRAGILE THEY ALL CAN BE! SO HOW?! HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"
"HUMANS DIDN'T SURVIVE FOR THIS LONG BY BEING PANSIES, YOU KNOW!"
Meroleona then surges her mana once more, causing all of the summoned beasts to scatter.
"We're strong because we were born weak in a world ready to kill us right out of the gate," she pointed out. "I remember the time when I took those words into heart; Being weak isn't a sin. Staying weak is! YOU DEMONS ARE BORN WITH POWER AND DID NOTHING OF VALUE WITH THEM, SO OF COURSE YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND US!"
"Nothing of value?" the Demon growled. "What value is there in living?! Has living brought nothing but problems?! DEALING WITH THE LIKES OF YOU, I THINK I'M IN THE RIGHT!"
Meroleona then belts out a cackle before readying herself into a fighting stance. "If you think you're right..." she snarled with a bloodthirsty expression, "... the shut up and fight."
"IF YOU INSIST!" Brahma then summons more of the earthworms and boars towards Meroleona. "[PRIMAL EARTH MAGIC: SHUKARAMUKHA + KRIMIBHOJANA]!"
"Fancy words, but do they mean anything?!" Meroleona then feels her back flare up with a surge of power, for which she'd not noticed until now.
She then recalls to Floga's last moments, where he'd shot his [Fire Magic] at her to propel her out of the closing gap before being crushed like himself and Sarado. She then realizes that the Spirit Guardian of Fire had imparted the last of his powers onto her with his last spell that had saved her life.
From that fireball was both a mana boost and the knowledge of how to use Mana Method with her own prowess of [Mana Zone], the former of which, she kind of knew, but somehow, the Spirit Guardian had somehow implanted his own knowledge with the booster into her during his last minutes of his life.
"Dunno how the hell that's possible, but I sure as hell ain't complaining. LET'S DO THIS SHIT!" Meroleona then roared as her fists blurred into a lightning-fast barrage of fiery punches, each blow wrecking the earthen beast that was sent to kill her.
As the beasts continued to charge, Meroleona's fists began to fly faster with each successive blow landed. And rather than her own punches stopping dead flat against the sent stone, the beasts actually began to crumble before her blows.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Brahma cried out in disbelief. But before he could point out how his stones couldn't be broken by the likes of her, he then lost Varuna's signal. "OF ALL TIMES, WHY NOW?!"
"SUCKS TO BE YOU!" Meroleona roared as her fists demolished the horde of earthen beasts sent from the Demon. Realizing that the Demon's grip on the earth's mana began to slip, she then takes advantage of this opening by immediately seizing partial control of the earth's mana flow and integrating it into her own. "NOW IT'S MY TURN TO SHIT ON YOU!"
All Brahma could do was scream in horror as the fiery fist flurry closed in towards him.
"[TRUE MANA ZONE]!" roared the lioness as her barrage kept getting faster and hotter with each executed blow. "[CALIDUS BRACHIUM PURGATORY-TITANOMACHIA]!"
All of the blows land onto the Demon, sending the latter screaming in pain as he crashed against the wall into a smoldering heap. Meroleona then finds herself crashing onto her knees, completely burnt out from the strain of the experience.
Yet, despite the amount of lethal blows inflicted onto the Demon, it was still alive, much to the Crimson Lion King's Vice-Captain's consternation. "... Good fucking grief... you're a hard son of a bitch to put down..."
"... It's funny..." coughed Brahma, barely moving, seeing his whole body riddled with wounds. "... I can't feel anything... so this is what... human mortality feels like."
It tried to walk towards the immobile lioness, barely accomplishing a stumble before falling flat onto his face.
"... I am... humbled," it spoke as a giant bow and arrow emerged from the earth, aimed towards Meroleona, "... for that... I shall give... you... a quick death."
Despite her injuries and exhaustion now all crashing down due to her adrenaline wearing off, Meroleona struggled to get up to at least thrown one more [Calidus Brachium] before she can go down.
"Fuck you..." snarled Meroleona as her flame arm lit up. "... You're the one... going to HELL FIRST!"
Brahma scoffs. "Never said that, woman," the bow draws back and fires its arrow. "[Primal Earth Magic: Pranarodha]!"
As the lioness mage readied to intercept the arrow with her fiery fist, the ceiling above is then cut open, revealing Jack the Ripper as he fell from above, using his blade to split the stone arrow down the middle before slashing his [Death Scythe] across the Demon's neck, decapitating him and putting an end to his life.
"... Huh," Meroleona remarked as her fire arm was put out, "not bad... how did you find me and get down here?"
"I heard explosions from below, which was kinda hard to ignore when they're coming from the likes of you," he remarked as he picked the Vice-Captain up and placed her over his shoulder. "As for how I got down here, there ain't nothing my blades can't cut through. Proved that to my own Demon prey."
Meroleona smiled at his bravado. "Guess you aren't all talk..."
"Never was!" he protested as the two escaped the hole.
The two then head further outside, seeing that the dam was now completely breached, only that there wasn't any water spilling out. Rather, it looked as if the whole dam and the water it held back didn't exist at all.
"... When the fuck did that happen?!" asked Meroleona.
"Know something that I don't?" Jack pointed out.
But before she could reply, the two then felt an oppressive presence glowering over them from behind. Unlike that of a Demon's or that of the DEVAs, this one was more pure and straightforward.
... It wasn't a good thing either. By "pure," the two suddenly felt weak and small compared to the thing behind them.
They turned around, only to be met with a titanic, bipedal white wolf wearing a vest reminiscent to that of a sheep's fleece, and dangling around its neck was a gold chain necklace with a bird cage holding Charmy inside of it. It's maws were drooling with hot saliva, its tongue stuck out the side, giving it a maniac-like appearance on top of its oppressive presence befitting of an apex predator. And its eyes were bulging and pulsating with a primal desire to feast upon everything that it saw, including the two standing before it.
"Keh, another one?" scoffed Jack before he then slashed out his [Death Scythes] at the wolf, only for the flying blades to transform into bananas mid-flight.
"Perfect ripeness, and in season too," said the beast before it devoured the spells-turned-fruit, skin and all. "Too early for dessert, though."
"SHORT-STACK?!" Meroleona cried out upon noticing Charmy caged around the beast's neck. "IS THAT YOU?!"
The wolf cackles at her attempts of calling the Black Bull out. "She's not available as of this moment."
"DID THAT FURRY FUCK JUST EAT MY BLADES?!" Jack cried out in indignation.
"And you two are next on the great Geri's dinner menu," the beast smacked his lips. "Now let's see what you two taste like!"
Agricultural Sector (on fire), Heart Kingdom, Midnight
As Scheherazade's [Roc] flew over the smokey and scorched earth of the burning Orchard, Agni was still setting things on fire indiscriminately, now completely ignoring the their initial prey in favor of more fire.
"Okay, the more we try and put it out, the more it retaliates with fire," Scheherazade pointed out as the group came into a meeting.
"In my current form, I'm afraid utilizing [Oceanic Citadel, Atlantis] again, is impossible," Undine pointed out. "I felt my prior body evaporate when it got hit by the flames. Water's practically useless in taking them down."
Lolopechka then looks down to see the flames continuing to spread out towards the sector's outer rim, her face starting to sting just looking at the flames before she retreated back. "... Yeah... my skin's already flaking despite us being far above its range."
Potrof then keeps thinking about his observation that he'd seen about Agni. "... Everyone," he pointed out, "... maybe we can use that to our advantage."
"What exactly?" asked Undine.
"Hear me out," the Spirit Guardian began to explain his plan. "Instead of putting out the Demon's fire, we instead add more fire."
"WHAT?!" Lolopechka exclaimed. "THAT'S INSANE!"
"Here's the thing," reassured Potrof. "Fire, in nature, can't burn forever, so it eventually has to burn itself out. Not only that, Agni's body, while it was designed to handle high temperatures, even they have a limit of much heat they can handle."
"So we force it into an overheat state under our own terms, keep them there, and hopefully they'll explode?" Undine asked, to which Potrof nodded.
"Okay," Lolopechka remarked, "so what is hotter than fire? I mean, I know that it's lava, but there aren't any volcanos near where we are right now!"
"I beg to differ," Scheherazade retorted. "I have one right here." She then unfurls her scroll to unleash another creature from her fable. "Summon, the King of Calamity, [Tannin]!"
A giant serpentine-like creature with volcanic cracks and hissing heat out of its multiple heads emerged from the ground with a echoing roar.
"This monster is normally a sea creature with amphibious features," she explained. "It's home are the underwater volcanoes, the same that it uses to set the world ablaze in its story! I held off using this monster from my fable until there was no other choices left. It's mere presence is destruction incarnate, that is, if there's anything left to destroy upon its arrival."
Agni then turns around to see the giant multi-headed monster glower before them.
"Burn it."
"Make it crisp," they then spewed more fire from their arms towards the monster, to which the latter breathed out streams of lava at the Demon, its heat proving superior to that of the former's, causing it visible damage on their body as its attack was swallowed up.
Tannin then follows it up by slamming its tail, triggering a chain volcanic eruption aimed at the Demon, forcing the latter to escape by using their flame jets on their back to take the air, only for it to be intercepted by the monster's multi-headed lava breaths all shot towards the Demon, with one grazing at one of the shoulder protrusions, knocking it off balance before they crash-landed back into the smoldering orchard.
"Sweet Sephira, that thing's owning the Demon!" Lolopechka commented. "I think it's actually hurting the thing!"
Agni stood back up, now receiving the signal that they were now the last DEVA standing.
"Vishnu, Indra, Rudra, Varuna and Brahma's signals all lost," spoke the male head.
"Overall mana intake threshold reduced to 20%," confirmed the female.
The Demon then ignores what they've said by stockpiling more mana into their body to make their flames burn hotter and brighter.
"Increasing mana output," spoke the male.
"Exceeding critical point," confirmed the female as their body began to glow from their collected excess heat. The Demon then points both of their flamethrower arms towards Tannin. "[Mana Zone]-achieved."
"Linkage with natural mana confirmed."
"Executing attack."
The arms then combine into a singular fire cannon aimed towards the monster, the latter of which kept firing its barrages of lava at the Demon, hissing and burning against their carapace.
Rather than think about retreating, the Demon stood there taking it, because they enjoyed it. The heat of the flames, the destruction that they brought, and the pretty lights that shone brighter than the sun when the skies turned dark from their flames.
They loved fire more than they liked living. They were born to burn, and to meet their end at their hottest flames was the greatest feeling of euphoria that they've felt in their short lives.
"[Primal Mana Zone-Over Critical]."
"[Genesis Nova, Hutāśana]."
A massive pillar of fire was then shot out of the Demon's cannon held up by the Demon's crumbling body toward Tannin and the [Roc] bird carrying the other four behind it. As the flame shot towards the monster, the flames around the sector intensified, burning ever brighter and hotter that even the bird's feathers above the sky caught on fire from the sheer generated heat coming from below.
"WE'RE GOING TO CRASH!" Lolopechka cried out as she hung on.
"THAT'S THE LEAST OF OUR WORRIES!" Potrof pointed out while Undine user her remaining powers to put out the fire on the bird.
"[TANNIN]!" Scheherazade cried out as she tried to steer [Roc] into a more favorable position as the the fire blast closed in on them. due to its lack of feathers. "USE YOUR STRONGEST ATTACK! FINISH IT, NOW!"
All of the monster's eyes glowed in response to her orders, the collective heads now combining their superheated energy into that of a singular orb of pure heat.
"[METEOR BLAZE]!" the Queen of Dama declared as she permitted the monster to unleash its full power. "[DABIH]!"
The giant orb of fire was then intercepted the Demon's own attack, the two forces clashing as now both monsters of flame were slowly devoured by their own combined power. As they began losing their forms, the colliding energy began to bulge and swell out of control, threatening to explode into one final supernova, an exaggeration of the nature of fire that Agni claimed to be, and what Tannin had brought.
"IT'S GOING TO BLOW!" Scheherazade cried out. "BRACE YOURSELVES!"
In desperation, she then summons [Dandan] to form an aquatic barrier around themselves, only for it to start bubbling and evaporating from the heat generated from the two's flames.
"IT'S NOT ENOUGH!" Undine then added her own powers into the barrier.
"UNDINE! NO!" Lolopeckha cried out. "YOU'LL DIE!"
"WE'LL ALL DIE IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING!" Undine pointed out. "AS THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT OF THIS REALM, I, UNDINE THE WATER SPIRIT, SHALL PROTECT THIS LAND AND ITS PEOPLE WITH MY VERY LIFE! THAT I SWORE TO THE FIRST QUEEN OF THIS LAND! I'LL GLADLY CHOOSE DEATH THAN BREAK MY OATH!"
The young Queen of the Herat Kingdom looked at herself, doing nothing. She wanted to try. She had to move. Undine is right.
She then not only began contributing her own powers into the barrier of water, but took the spell for herself.
"THEN HERE IS MY VOW!" she declared, stunning Undine with her grown backbone. "I, LOLOPECHKA, RULER OF HEART KINGDOM, SHALL STAKE MY OWN LIFE IN DEFENDING THIS REALM! I REFUSE TO YIELD TO MY FEARS AND WEAKNESS WHEN I HAVE THE POWER TO PREVENT MORE TRAGEDY! UNDINE! SCHEHERAZADE! LEND ME YOUR POWER AS I SHALL LEND MINE! GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!"
The three then reestablish [Oceanic Citadel, Atlantis] once again. But the heat still overwhelmed the watery fortress.
"IT'S NOT ENOUGH!" Scheherazade cried out as her [Dandan] worked overtime. "THE FLAMES SHALL CONSUME US ALL AT THIS RATE!"
"ALLOW ME!" Potrof them gives everyone, Undine included, his own mana. "I can't do anything with my [Plant Magic] as of right now, but I'll be damned before I stand here and do nothing! THIS IS MY CONTRIBUTION! TAKE AS MUCH MANA AS MY BODY ALLOWS IT!"
Invigorated, [Atlantis] grows big enough to now properly maintain its shape against the growing flame. As the glowing heat reached its pinnacle, nuclear fission was achieved.
The inferno then finally explodes, with the only thing that is keeping the fortress of waves and whirlpools from evaporating being their supply of mana and their unyielding resolve to not die.
The glow ceases, leaving nothing but a scorched crater behind. The only thing flying above the ruin being the [Roc] bird that carried the four on its back.
"... It's gone," Lolopechka remarked. "... WE DID IT!"
The two queens and the Water Spirit all hug it out in a cathartic display of relief. Potrof collapses onto his back, completely exhausted in body and of mana. "... Hell yeah we did."
But as he was about to close his eyes for a long-overdue rest, he then spots a faint emerald glimmer shining through the thinning cloud of smoke.
Instantly, with the last of his strength, he then shoves the other three off of the [Roc]'s back, taking the verdant thunderbolt in his queen's place.
"NO!" Lolopechka cried out as she saw her Spirit Guardian charred to a crisp before her eyes as she plummeted.
[Roc] then returns to Scheherazade's fable as the Queen of Dama then saw another glimmer of emerald light coming towards their way. "[HATIF]!"
A winged harpy-like creature then shows up, intercepting the thunderbolt with her sonic screech, buying enough time to allow her queen to summon [Bahamut] to make a quick escape.
"It's the curse!" Undine cried out as she noticed Lolopechka's crosshairs-like marking on her back glowing. "Ziz has returned firing on us!"
"I FORGOT ABOUT THE CURSE!" the young queen panicked.
The three then see [Hatif] get fried to a crisp by another lightning bolt that she failed to intercept.
"RUN!" ordered Scheherazade as the flying whale flew for its life as bolts of lightning rained behind them.
Ruined Residential Sector, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
"... Okay," sighed Vanessa as she then snipped the thread that finished stitching her Captain's wound. "It's finished. His condition is now stable."
Magna then checked the Captain's pulse. "... Blood's still flowing, no sweating or signs of being hurt real bad," he assessed. "... Worst is over."
Gauche and Finral both share a sigh of relief as soon as the good news was heard. "... Good fucking Lord, this is the worst night out ever," grumbled Finral. "... Demons, near-deaths, actual death..." he rambled on incoherently. "... Captain went through this kind of thing 20 years ago... we can't afford to lose face now."
"Still though," Gauche remarked, "no point of staying around here much longer."
"I'll open a portal somewhere else near one of the shelters while you guys prepare to move him," Finral remarked as soon as he no longer heard the sound of fighting nearby. "... About damn time too."
The other three Black Bulls then take off their Magic Knight robes before setting them around the two salvaged shafts from Indra's bolts, creating a stretcher to carry Yami around in. Magna and Gauche lift their Captain off of the ground as Vanessa reinforces the stretcher with her sewing to make sure that it can carry their Captain.
"Alright, we got him on!" Magna exclaimed. "Finral! How's the portal?!"
"Uh, guys?" he remarked as he kept trying to use his [Spatial Magic], only for it to fizzle out. "... I can't open a portal. And no, not because I'm tired, but there's something else blocking me."
"... Something else?" remarked Gauche as he then looked towards the jungle around them. "... Are we not finished yet?!"
To if had made sure that his question was answered, a bright bolt of lightning streaked between Gauche and Magna's faces before crashing next to them.
"... No fucking way," the delinquent [Fire Magic] user then turned his attention to the kicked-up dust, "... that lightning... I recognize it from anywhere!"
The dust settles to reveal Luck standing before them.
"LUCK?!" Finral and Vanessa cried out in unison.
"Luck" then chortles in a deeper voice that wasn't his. "So that's the body's name," he remarked. "Apologizes, but I'm afraid this 'Luck' has long since left this world."
Magna's heart then heat up with an unfathomable rage of this whoever puppeteering his rival and comrade's body. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
"I am Tesla, Nikolas Tesla," the body greeted with a deep bow, "and I am afraid to inform you all that I did not show up alone."
Everyone then turns back upon sensing a pungent strain of mana coming towards them, revealing themselves to be a group consisting of a band of humans with varying degrees of appearances, and a pair of Devils accompanying them.
"... No fucking way..." Magna gasped in horror as he recognized one of them. "... SIS?!"
"Sup," greeted Angra, "you look like shit."
"Don't be too hard on the boy," said Mainyu. "He's now just learning that his big sister is Devil Contractor!"
"HEY! I RECOGNIZE THEM!" Rades barked out, pointing at the Black Bulls. "THOSE FUCKERS WERE THE ONE WHO PUT ME THROUGH THE FUCKING WRINGER WHEN I RETRIEVED THE BRAT'S CORPSE!"
"Wow, aren't they a unique-looking bunch?" Sally commented. "... Wonder if I can tinker with them a little soon as we're done with our detour."
"... I told you that this was the wrong way..." grumbled Valtos, "... sorry Sally, but we're leaving no witnesses. Go salvage what you can find from their corpses."
"Makes me wonder why we jumped in the first place," Mammon commented before his face shifted slightly.
"Who cares?" Morris remarked. "I heard that a trip's journey is what matters the most."
For the Black Bulls, finding that the group responsible for the Kingdom's capital city attack several months back when they were at their weakest was the worst case scenario. For Magna especially, finding out that his friend's corpse is being used by someone else was already beyond fucked up. But finding his older sister among the enemy's numbers? It was a double-downing of betrayal and hurt. The combined feeling that overrode what little reservations he had left as he then threw an [Explosive Fireball] at the group in an act of blind rage.
Angra intercepts the spell with her body, not even a mark being left behind after deflecting it. "Hey Sally," she asked the scientist-looking member of the group, "mind if I put these upgrades of yours through the paces?"
"I'll be sure to take notes!" she replied happily.
"Well, sorry one lady and gentlemen," taunted Rades, "but I'm afraid you numbers are up."
The Necromancer then snaps his fingers, summoning his horde of undead servants into the open as everyone from the Illuminati readied themselves for a fight.
"Dammit! Things cannot get any worse than this!" Gauche remarked as he readied his mirrors. "We'll hold them off, Finral! Try to open the portal again!"
"It's useless," Valtos declared. "My [Spatial Magic: Dominator Dome] prevents the usage of other [Spatial Magic] as a means of escape. Your fates are sealed. Give up."
"Telling those knuckleheads to give up even after you said 'no witnesses'?" Angra commented. "A little too late for that."
Just as the remaining Black Bulls prepared for their last stand, a loud howl was heard before an entire segment of the outside jungle disappeared in an instant. Coming out of the opening were none other than Meroleona and Jack the Ripper, running away from a frenzied giant wolf monster chasing after them.
"OH COME ON!" Jack cried out upon seeing zombies. "YOU PUKES AGAIN?!"
"Just shit all over us, why don't you?!" Meroleona remarked.
The wolf then stops to see all of the people that were gathered before him and smiled. "Delightful," it then stood up from its fours, "a cornucopia! And just when I was getting a little peckish after that light jog through the wilderness."
"Wait a minute, is that-?!" Vanessa then noticed Charmy inside the wolf's birdcage necklace.
"Yeah, good job for picking that up," Meroleona confirmed her suspicions, "and no, she's not answering. Out like a light after a date with the entire turkey buffet."
"Good sir," asked the Devil (not Mainyu; he actually has standards), "who in the actual fuck are you?"
"Call me Geri, food," the beast snarled while drooling uncontrollably, greedily looking over the gathered living beings to see which one he should eat and how.
"Oh, a Dwarven Totem God," remarked Morris, much to the surprise of everyone present. "What? You know that the Diamond Kingdom was literally built atop of conquered Dwarven lands, right? Of course I picked up on some archeology."
"Good for you, Sally," spoke Mammon. "We finally found an actual living God to dissect."
"I feel like my brain is going to explode from hearing all of those revelations at once..." groaned Finral.
Geri then begins picking out who he should eat first as they continued their confused pre-battle squabble. "You three, I'll grill," he pointed towards Sally, Rades and Valtos. "You two, I'll deep-fry," he pointed to the two Devils. "You two, I'll season and bake," he pointed towards Tesla and Angra. "You two, I'll pan sear," he pointed to Jack and Meroleona. "And you five, I'll eat raw," he pointed to the rest of the Black Bulls. "Do not worry, my master's hunger shall be satisfied... WITH YOU ALL AS TONIGHT'S MAIN COURSE!"
The beast then leapt into the sky as he then began his wild feast upon the living.
Mimo Amazon Borders, Heart Kingdom, Midnight
Caligula and [Saint Leo] clashed blade to knuckle against each other while Gaja then fired a ray of lightning towards the Demon.
The Demon quickly disengages from the clash to dodge the pincer blow, but Mosin had already set up her [Glepnir] wires where Caligula was flying towards and intercepted his attempted escape.
Before the wires could do anything, Caligula quickly shrunk back to its fly-sized form and sped himself towards the Inquisitor like a speeding bullet of death, only [Saint Leo] then catches him between its fingers, forcing the Demon to revert back to its child-sized form before he was then blasted from behind by Gaza's [Lightning Magic].
"He's getting weaker!" Mosin cried out as she then puppeteers [Saint Leo] to move in for the kill. "FINISH IT, NOW!"
By a narrow margin, Caligula escapes the combined deathblow from both the Inquisitor and the Spirit Guardian. His semi-weakened stated, while still retaining his speed, didn't change the fact that he was still underperforming. This affected Caligula's ability to regenerate, fight, and above all else. the blade-arm that he'd used to replace his donated arm still fucking hurt.
The chances of him killing those two became as likely as those two ending up killing him. "For fuck's sake..." he growled, "I take one day to dedicate myself finishing you all off, and despite everything I've done to make sure that the invasion succeeds, IT'S ALREADY A FUCKING FAILURE!"
He'd already received the signal that all of the DEVAs are now dead, with the last one literally going out with a bang that he'd heard from miles away. With them no longer around to regulate the natural mana flow throughout Heart Kingdom, it could only mean one thing.
"... I can use Mana Method again," Gaja stated as his hand crackled with power. "Let's lay on even more pressure, Mosin!"
The Inquisitor then belts out a roar as her puppet surged with more power. Gaja then began forming arrays around the air in a net-like formation to ensure that his spell hits all possible vectors where Caligula might escape. Caligula tried to intercept Gaja from completing his spell, only for the Demon himself to be intercepted by [Saint Leo]'s punches.
"YOU WILL NEVER HARM ANOTHER INNOCENT EVER AGAIN!" Mosin roared as she pumped more of her own and the natural mana into her puppet before they both let out an echoing roar.
Caligula then tried to intercept Mosin herself from using [Saint Leo] to intercept him, but by then, it was already too late for him to make that attempt.
"It is done," declared Gaja as the air around them surged with power. "Now perish."
The small arrays scattered about like fireflies then all interconnected with each other, trapping Caligula like a bug in a net. Mosin herself had already vacated the premises, now charing her own attack while Caligula was pinned down.
"[True Mana Zone]," declared the Spirit Guardian as thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the Demon's sight, "[Vrontí Theós]!"
The net roars to life with countless thunder. And from afar the refulgence, [Saint Leo]'s mouth was open, ready to fire its ultimate attack.
"FULL-BURST MODE, ENGAGED!" confirmed the Inquisitor as her wires shone in conjuncture with her [Saint Leo]'s charging power. "EAT THIS! [REGULUS ROAR]!"
The lion-knight then belts out a shining beam of pure light towards the Demon, giving him an extra helping of punishment that he'd deserved.
From the smoking crater laid Caligula, near-death, but still alive.
"That wasn't enough?!" Gaja exclaimed.
"Then I'll finish the job myself!" Mosin then orders [Saint Leo] to deliver the finishing blow, but unbeknownst to them, Caligula had one more trick up his sleeve.
A Dragon's fang, now stripped most of its mana to create the DEVAs, but now can be used to implant a Dragon's own MNA into his own biological composition. Quickly, he swallows the tooth whole, and upon consuming it, his body began to bulge and morph as the puppet raised its fist and hammered it back down.
The blow misses, and in the next instance, [Saint Leo] was found demolished.
Now in the place of Caligula hovered an absolutely hideous creature being a cross between that of a bagworm moth, a crocodile, and mobile hive. Its body was no longer humanoid, but rather completely insectoid in feature, its wings were now wider and beat faster, and its face now had the appearance of that of a genuine insect, but now sporting a third eye between its default two.
"... [PRiMAl mUTaNt MAGiC]..." the thing garbled, "[aPEx PReDATOr, SHIVA]!"
For great power, Caligula had now sacrificed his entire mind, now running nothing on but pure animal instinct.
Gaja then shoots his lightning bolt at the evolved Shiva, but the Demon's third eye predicts the movement of his spell and effortlessly dodges it before moving in for a vicious counterattack with one of its appendages.
Mosin quickly pulls him out of the way before summoning her new puppet to take place of the destroyed [Saint Leo], this time being the jester-like [Guardian of Curiosity, Saint Gemini].
"That thing won't die easily," Mosin pointed out. "Forgive me for underestimating the enemy, Gaja."
The Spirit Guardian shook his head before regaining his focus. "The others did their work, so I should be the one to apologize for getting lazy," he stated. "One more push, and this war shall end."
Shiva then screeches before the two then begin their final assault upon the ringleader behind both Heart Kingdom, Dama, and the Order of the Spade Cross's shared heartache.
Rotton Elysium, Neutral Territory, Midnight
It was a tragedy. To see the home that she'd built for elves that had escaped Year 1000's Armageddon to be uprooted by the Demons before she was captured and made into an experiment without a clear objective.
Death was already a tragic part of life that the elven patron spirit had accepted, but to see it perverted and twisted at the hands of pure evil brought now shortage of sadness to her heart.
She felt feverish by the second, with something swelling inside of her navel, and it's not because of the cocoon that was forcibly planted inside of her, but rather, it was something inside the cocoon that had began to pulsate.
... This is it then, the nature spirit grimly mused, I am going to die because the Demon willed it so...
The Dryad couldn't decide whether if she should laugh or cry at this situation. The four Stigmatas planted inside felt like a disease that she was infected with, and there was no cure for it.
Even then, even she could sense it. The humans were fighting and managed to overcome the worst. Yet beyond that storm was another threat looming before them.
She felt nothing but dread for the humans who now had to fight off one calamity after another, with no rest in-between, as if the tides of fate was set out to kill them all with extreme prejudice. The Dryad wanted to pray for their salvation, but what salvation is there left in a world that had not only taken away her beloved people, but was now about to bring further ruin unto those who had already suffered too much too quickly.
All she can feel was fear. And from fear, an inevitable sense of despair began to ground her heart into dust.
"... be not... afraid..."
From her stupor, she'd then hear a voice. It was faint, it was minuscule, but despite its smallness, there was an undeniable power behind those words.
Dryad looked around, only to find that she's alone. "... Where could've that come from?" she thought out loud.
The implanted Stigmatas then began to burn inside of her, causing her further suffering with trying to not only hold in her screams to maintain some dignity she had left, but if she now showed weakness in this very moment, it is likely that the Stigmatas will activate on their own, summon their allotted Demons, with her and the girl inside of her as their sacrifices.
"... be not... afraid..." an etherial voice echoed from the girl's very heart inside the Dryad's womb. "... be not... afraid..."
Dryad then takes those words into heart. No matter what, even at death's door, she will not be afraid.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Okay, a little burned out after drafting this.
For the past week, I've made several revisions of the storyboard, did experimental feug-shui with my own work space, playing Persona 5 Royal on the Switch, spent over $200 on Youthberk support that I missed out for the past several months in Cardfight! Vanguard overDress, went to two remote meetings revolving around my future prospects/jobs and internships, and my younger brother's 20th birthday.
As a result, my mental state was semi-compromised during the development for this chapter's storyboarding process. So excuse the sudden drop in quality. I kinda need more than a weekend to rest my brain a little.
So this chapter is basically the DEVAs all going through a collective combat breakdowns as their kin get taken down one by one, with Caligula himself being responsible for this mess and at this point, it's clear that his "plans" are him making shit up as he goes.
That latter statement is exemplified with his DEVAs. On paper, six-super powered Demons drawing powers from Dragons. Execution-wise, they're full of holes and while they're strong and deadly out of the gate, they're about as strong as their weakest link.
In fact, the DEVAs were supposed to be mindless drones like any other Thanatophage, but Dragon magic does weird shit, which Caligula didn't recognize beyond it being a cool power boost.
In a way, the DEVAs are like UAVs, with their "personalties" being like AI, but shoddily coded, and fancy optics aside, their sole goal is to rip Heart Kingdom a new one similar to how a Reaper UAV does to some random hut in Afghanistan. Heck, even their power to utilize natural mana as fuel that accidentally allowed them to blend in with their surroundings isn't that much different from the "Predator B" stealth bomber drones.
To wit, their "AI" is their personality traits that hinders them but makes em fun to write. Which then brings me to the fatal flaws for the other three DEVAs:
Varuna: lack of composure and easily prone to panicking at... well, everything that doesn't fit within his narrow viewpoint. By narrow, I mean he specifically sees all of humans as insects and any slightest of deviance of that viewpoint will make him sloppy, and inversely, anything that conforms to his narrow bias makes him complacent, feeding each other into a vicious feedback loop. As a result, he doesn't handle being cornered well, and puncture through his metaphorical armor once, and watch him break down fast. Geri didn't just kill him. It was a full-blown "death by despair."
Brahma: only sane man tendencies. Leaves him with no discernible weaknesses, but both having to go off of his own rather than coordinate with the rest of the DEVAs leaves him to technically underperform. He can do solo work just fine, except that when things don't go all according to plan, he becomes just as bad Varuna in terms of inflexibility, albeit its a slower and more agonizing process. At least around the end, he somewhat turns his viewpoint around, but by then, Brahma was already dead anyway.
Agni: addiction to power. Agni can be best described as being on a perpetual power-high and out of the six, they're the most destructive, bar none. However, they deliberately ignore all safety precautions installed into them, in favor of setting more things on fire, not-so-subtly implying pyromania. In fact, they were so blind to their own limitations that rather than putting out the fire, causing it to overheat to the point of exploding and killing themselves was the logical conclusion, rather than say, put out the fire. Out of the six DEVAs, Agni was the one who was proud of their role of being destroyers, even at the cost of destroying themselves.
Come to think of it, the DEVAs' fatal flaws are actually antithetical to their namesakes:
- Rudra is a forgotten god, DEVA Rudra was the first to show and the last to die in his chapter, thus being memorable to a degree.
- Indra is a raging asshole akin to Zeus, but even then he was an anti-hero who would slay monsters free of charge, whereas DEVA Indra's "robot soldier" mentality is detrimental and didn't benefit him at all.
- Vishnu may be the god of preservation, but he is also the mover of the cycle, and the "preservation" part is simply letting nature take its course before the inevitable reset, but DEVA Vishnu's view of "perfection" is basically stagnation, a value that is antithetical to Hinduism's view of nature.
- Varuna is the god of water and oceans, and thus he held authority over the Nagarajas; a dignified king that other kings strive to follow, DEVA Varuna is a barely-functional mess that dies without a shred of dignity.
- Brahma is the one who creates the physical world after each reset, allowing second chances to those who've reincarnated, DEVA Brahma doesn't care for second chances and views all mistakes as something that doesn't deserve mercy.
- Agni, being the god of fire, is meant to represent the dual nature of fire as an element: warmth and destruction, DEVA Agni eschews the "warmth" part in favor of pure, unadulterated destruction.
As for the chapter itself, I killed off the characters that I had no idea what do with in the future, which in itself is a product of my own semi-burnout.
Anyway, the Illuminati are now at the Black Bulls' doorsteps because of a freaking detour on the former's part, and Charmy's own "big eater" trait is now given a darker edge upon the reveal of the wolf's true identity being a semi-malevolent wolf god bent on eating everything in sight, En got Team Rocketed to god knows where, Lolopechka is now back on Ziz's radar after Agni's death, and Caligula's death might actually work to his benefit, but even then, he himself has a nasty surprise waiting for him.
Implications everywhere! Look forwards to how all that unfolds within the shitstorm unleashed by the chaos. For now, my brain needs some me-time.
References:
- Varuna's spells are named after his namesake god's associations throughout Hindu mythology or the mythology itself as a whole. His [Primal Water Magic: 666-Pounder, Makara] is named after Varuna's crocodile that the god rides upon, [Undead Serpent King, Nagaraja] is named after the Hindu title of "serpent kings," which Varuna himself is associated with Nagas due to their shared affinity for water, and his final spell, [Manvantara-Sandhya] is named after one of the fourteen, 1,728,000 year-long cycles which the earthly world is destroyed before being reset back to its genesis, this specific cycle's end being heralded by a great flood that drowned the whole world. It's attempted pre-mortem one liner is RGB2's catchphrase from Regular Show.
- En's [Mr. Slick Mushrooms] are based off the phoiliota microspora/nameko/butterscotch mushrooms with the mannerisms of Ichiya Valanday Kotobuki from Fairy Tail.
- Brahma's spells are named after the various realms of Naraka, Hinduism's version of Hell. [Tamisra] is named after the realm of darkness where thieves of all kinds are bound and beaten to near death and back, [Asipatravana] is named after the realm of sword-leaved forests where heretics and the non-believers of Hinduism are sent, [Shukaramukha] is named after a realm where corrupt governmental officials are sent to be squeezed like sugar canes for their juices, [Krimibhojana] is named after a realm where selfish gluttons are sent into a lake of worms as a worm to be devoured by other worms, and [Pranarodha] is named after a realm where those who hunt animals for sport and not for food are sent to be shot, stabbed or slashed to death and back by their own hunting tools wielded by their jailers/punishers.
- Agni's spells are named after his alternative names/titles. [Flames of Purification, Pāvaka] is named after the title meaning "sanctifier of everything" in Hindi, [Heatwave of Damnation, Vahni], is named after the title meaning "traveling with the wind" (a nod to how fire moves and feeds off oxygen) in Hindi, [Volcanic Exhaust, Dhumaketu], is named after the title meaning "one who is crowned with smoke" in Hindu, and their final attack, [Genesis Nova, Hutāśana], is named after the title that means "blazing fire" in Hindi.
- Undine's defensive spell agains Agni's [Vahni], [Oceanic Citadel, Atlantis] is named after the mythological Greek city that was submerged into the ocean.
- Scheherazade's recent summons from her fable, [Bahamut] and [Roc], are mythological creatures from Arabian and Persian mythologies respectively. Former is a mythological whale-like creature that holds up the world. on its back (specifically, supports the bull and the Angel that holds up the actual earth on top of each other), while the latter is an Arabian giant bird of prey that carry off elephants in their talons. Her ultimate summon, the King of Calamity, [Tannin], is named after the Hebrew/Canaanite sea monster symbolizing as the ultimate evil ala Satan. And her supplemental summon, [Hatif] is the name of the Arabic creature to describe an echo or a disembodied voice with a will of its own.
- Charmy's wolf, revealed as Geri, the Dwarven Totem God of Desire, is named after one of Odin's two wolves, Geri and Freki, the former meaning "the ravenous one" in Old Norse. Behavior-wise, I based it off of Gut's inner Beast of Darkness from Berserk and Ryomen Sukuna (the whole "food" and culinary motif related to the Vengeful Spirit) from Jujitsu Kaisen (with Charmy as the Guts and Itadori of the relationship, the dichotomy being akin to that of a man's struggle with his inner werewolf). Its pre-mortem line to Varuna was that of Fat Bastard's from the Austin Powers Trilogy.
- Meroleona and Brahma's slugfest is inspired by the Jack VS Black Baron fight from MadWorld, with the cross-counters, headbutts, the works.
- Meroleona's [True Mana Zone: Calidus Brachium Purgatory-Titanomachia] is named after the war between the Titans and the 12 Olympians.
- Tannin's ultimate attack, [Meteor Blaze, Dabih] is the Arabic name of the Beta Capricorni star, and "Dabih" means "the lucky star of the Slaughterer." No mythological correlations, but seemed evil/destructive-sounding enough to make it apt.
- Gaja's [True Mana Zone: Vrontí Theós] can either mean "roaring god" or "thunder god" in Greek.
- Caligula's final form, [Apex Predator, Shiva], is named after the Hindu Deva of destruction and rebirth. Design-wise, I had in mind the Crocodilian from Darkest Dungeon's Crimson Court Expansion, the Queen Gibdo from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Rosine's full moth Apostle form from Berserk.
- The last lines spoken to Dryad is lifted from Archangel Gabriel's lines from Luke.1 Verses 26-38 from the New Testament half of the Bible. And yes, you know who's coming next after Archangel Mikhael.
And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!